Billionaire battle. Meta’s boss Mark Zuckerberg overtakes Jeff Bezos to become the world’s second richest man
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta Platforms and the co-founder of Facebook, has become the second richest man in the world.
This is according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which noted that Zuckerberg had overtaken Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the second richest man in the world thanks to his 13 percent in Meta Platforms.
This stake has meant that Zuckerberg’s net worth has risen by $78 billion in 2024, to reach $206.2 billion on Thursday.
Net worth
This was done after Meta shares closed at a record high on Thursday at $582.77, representing a roughly 68 percent jump from early January when its shares were trading at $346.29.
This puts Zuckerberg just ahead of the $205.1 billion net worth of former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, whose fortune has been dented from repeated share sales, investments in Blue Origin, and his hugely expensive divorce from his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott (who instantly became the fifth richest woman in the world as a result).
The boss of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, remains the world’s richest man, according to the Bloomberg index.
Meta turnaround
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has been pleasing Wall Street lately with its improved financial performance.
In August Meta posted a stunning rise in both profits and revenues. Quarterly profit rose an impressive 73 percent to $13.5bn, while revenues rose 22 percent to $39bn.
But it has been tough few years for the company.
Meta revealed a major online advertising setback in 2021 when Apple introduced an iOS privacy update that weakened its ability to track users across the web. Apple iOS 14.5 update required apps to ask for permission to track a user’s online activity.
Meta warned in February 2022 that the privacy changes would cost it $10 billion in revenue.
Zuckerberg however began 2023 with a ‘year of efficiency’ pledge after he had displeased Wall Street with the scale of Meta’s heavy spending on the Metaverse.
During 2023 Meta repeatedly slashed its workforce numbers (approximately 21,000 staff) as well as cutting other operating expenses. As of June 2024, Meta had a total headcount at 70,799.
This aggressive cost cutting saw Meta’s stock price almost triple in value in 2023, and propelled Meta’s market cap past $1 trillion, to its current market value of $1.48 trillion.